Twas The Night Before Cybermas
by Triforce78
Summary: As a year approaches since the new incarnation of the Doctor, things get a little interesting around Christmas as the Doctor and Clara are put against odds that neither have them had ever forseen! (This is an original story that I created in hopes of sharing with you my vision for a future adventure. More will come after this!)
1. A Rough Start

It was quite interesting how the interior of the machine had come to arrange itself in since the previous Christmas Day. Of course, the "round things" had not made a return and the probability of them returning was theoretically impossible, as the TARDIS is constantly trapped in a cycle of internal change, as determined by the succession of Doctors and how each of them possessed a seemingly different central room, though it was never explained how or why the walls and console changed. After countless hours spent over countless companions, it was never figured out, and the issue was laid to rest. At this particular, moment however, the decor of the room was the least of the two passengers' concerns.

"Doctor," Clara screamed, falling to the ground as the TARDIS suddenly shook with the magnitude of a severe earthquake, "Is this _supposed_ to be happening?!" Bright white light, flashing at random intervals, provided moments of temporary blindness as traditional Christmas songs blared at the decibel of the engine of a Boeing 747. Among the lyrics of Silent Night came ominous beeps and the occasional grunt from Clara and her double-hearted companion. _Aren't I the companion?_ She thought to herself before being violently thrown to the floor again.

The Doctor, fighting to keep himself at the center console, either did not hear the question or chose to ignore it, as he continued to press buttons and pull levers that appeared to have no effect on the current state of things. His short gray hair still stood perfectly on his head, and his black jacket was slowly becoming looser as the force of the shaking caused it to become unbuttoned. The initial target destination of which the two were headed was supposed to be 18th century Germany for a traditional Christmas party in Dusseldorf, but, by the state of things, it appeared as though they were hurtling through time and space at an alarming rate.

"Looks like we are going to have to take a slightly different route…" The man said, his thick Scottish accent making every word seem slightly sarcastic. To Clara and to everybody who talked to him, he seemed Scottish, but she knew that he only had the accent because of the TARDIS and its ability to do wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey speech translation. Still, though, that would explain how to her he spoke English, but never really explained the accent.

After one final jerk that made Ms. Oswald want to eject all of her lunch out of her mouth, she deemed it fitting that she should stop contemplating the realities of the TARDIS and focus more on not spewing her tuna salad out on the journey along with the universe's worst riptide. Luckily, that jerk was the last, as the entire machine shuddered to a stop. There was no crash, no explosion, no real noise at all; just a shudder and then a stop. Along with the fact that loud noises were absent, all of the lights stopped, as did the extremely loud Christmas music. Both the Doctor and Clara remained still, as if any movement at all would set off a ticking time bomb.


	2. An Unknown Interference

The Doctor was the first one to move, slowly circling around the console. Tapping on every button, pulling every lever, staring at every monitor, it became increasingly clear that all power to the TARDIS was gone.

"How is this possible.." He said to himself, double checking and then triple checking everything. His jacket had been buttoned one of the trips around the center, but it wasn't apparent how that had happened. Clara had gotten up after swallowing her lunch once again, and was leaning against the outer railing, slightly nauseous. Her long brown hair had been completely swept over her face during the violent shaking, but she had not even bothered to fix it. Brown eyes stared at the Doctor for the first two circles, but at the third, she gained enough control to speak.

"What in the name of God just happened?" She said, moving into the Doctor's path so he could not make a complete third trip around. He stood in front of her, contemplating just walking around and skipping the few buttons that she blocked with her body, but decided against it.

Sighing, he put a fist against his head and said, "Well, it appears as though there was some interference during our jump to Dusseldorf. The interference was something that this machine had never experienced before, which is why it was sent into such a violent mood. Whatever it was that was pulling as in has stopped, though I am afraid of what lies outside of the doors. It could be something extremely peaceful or we could be walking head first into an army of Daleks. I don't know about you, but I would prefer not to spend my last breath as a free Time Lord staring into an eyestalk of one of my mortal enemies."

The Doctor stood there, looking at Clara, waiting for a response. When she did not give one immediately, he simply sighed and moved around her, giving the buttons one final check. However, nothing even changed in the slightest, and it made Clara start to laugh. The laugh started out as a silent giggle, but soon the noise was filling the entire room. The Doctor, having stopped in his tracks when he first heard the laughter, was now once again standing in front of Clara, a facial expression that radiated puzzlement as well as anger.

"Why are you laughing so hard? This is a serious situation!" The Doctor said, his mouth downturned slightly in a frown. He was genuinely confused why the brunette would be laughing at something quite like this.

Clara, composing herself, "You are insane, Doctor."

_That_ remark was one that the Doctor heard throughout his entire life from various people. Whenever he would show them his time machine, they called him insane because it was bigger on the inside. Whenever they would see him pull out a sonic screwdriver (or some other tool, during those incarnations where he didn't use one), people would call him insane. Even alien species like the Daleks, Sontarans, and other Time Lords have called him insane. It had never got to him, though, until it was said to him through the voice of a certain Clara Oswin Oswald.

"Please enlighten me as to how I am insane," The Doctor spoke coolly, even though his face retained an expression of anger.

Clara, laughing again, "The definition of insanity is doing something again and again, but expecting a different result."

That is when it clicked for the Time Lord, and he spoke, "And since I have been checking all of the buttons and levers, expecting them to work, that makes me insane. Huh, I guess I had never thought of it that way. I also suppose that I should be focusing on the real matter at hand, and that is why all of the power is drained from the TARDIS. There is only one way that could be, and it is almost impossible." Nonetheless, the man started making his way towards the outside door.

Clara, following right behind him, asked, "Didn't you say it may be dangerous, whatever is behind that door?"

The Doctor turned around and said to her, "You know the Cybermen, right?" Clara nodded, so he continued, "Well, they all run on electricity, as they are machines. Their entire home planet, which has been inhabited by these machines for a million years to the day, was drained of all of its natural energy in order to run the Cybermen and help them thrive. However, as a means of population control, so to speak, the planet started to take energy from the Cybermen in order to keep its structure, which kept the Cyberman population stagnant. The planet also took energy from any new machines that got near it, and if my suspicions are correct…" The Doctor opened the door.

"Welcome to Telos, the original planet of the Cybermen."


	3. Distress and Revalations

With the door open, the Doctor expected there to be an influx of sand and dust, as the last time he had been to the planet, it was a very arid place. If, by any other circumstance, the planet would have somehow reverted back to its original state as being ice covered. However, what went on for miles brought the Doctor to speechlessness as he looked across the landscape. Clara, having never seen the planet, would not have known that it was wrong if it wasn't for the look on the taller figure's face. The look was similar, maybe even identical, to the one that he had worn just a few minutes earlier: that of puzzlement and anger. It appeared as though a second impossible scenario had come face to face with the Doctor, and he was not faring too well with that notion.

Clara stepped out of the TARDIS and sank into bright green grass that went up to her waist. The Doctor reached out instinctively, as to protect her from whatever poison or danger the grass may pose. However, since she was not lying unconscious or foaming at the mouth, he deemed it safe and stepped out as well. This grass stretched out for as far as their eyes could see, contrasting pleasantly with the dull gray of the sky. The grayness, Clara had learned from visiting a similar planet in the past, was caused by the excessive amount of Krypton gas in the atmosphere, which caused the nearest star's light to reflect the gray colour of the spectrum.

The pair stood there in silence for a few minutes, staring off into the distance. Nothing changed at all during those few minutes, and the grass continued to remain sedentary, blowing in a soft wind that caused Clara's hair to fly off of her shoulders. It was so peaceful and quiet, in fact, that it made Clara squeal slightly when the door behind her slammed shut. She turned to look at the Doctor, his right arm still outstretched with his hand in the shape of having just snapped.

"I thought all of the power was gone?" She asked, looking at the gray haired man.

"It is, Clara. But, this is still my machine, albeit stolen, so simple tasks such as closing the door will still happen when I ask it to. That is just common sense," The Doctor remained silent after that for a moment, before speaking again, "This day has just not been making any sense. First, the TARDIS is intercepted by a foreign signal, and then we land on a planet that is supposed to be extremely dangerous and dry and then it turns out to be," He gestured his arms outward to encompass the entire scene before them, "this."

"Are you sure that we are on Telos and not some other planet with similar properties?" Clara asked with genuine concern.

"I am one hundred percent sure that this is Telos. I can almost feel the planet trying to drain the energy out of me."

After that sentence came out of the Doctor's mouth, Clara started to notice something. She began to realize how her breaths were just slightly more shallow than they had been just a few moments ago. Along with that fact, a slight feeling of fatigue was over her, though it did not show on any exterior part of her body. Overall, she felt slightly weaker than she even had when they were barrelling towards this mystery planet. This sudden realization caused her immediate stress.

"Doctor, you said the planet takes energy out of whatever lands on it to rebuild itself?" She said, her eyes wide and her voice slightly high.

The Doctor looked at her, "Well, rebuilding is an interesting term, but yes. Since there appears to be a strange lack of Cybermen, the planet is regaining life that it has not seen in a while. It immediately took all of the energy out of the TARDIS because it is a machine, but it will also take that of organic creatures if they happen to come close to the planet-" Sudden realization hit him as well, and he snapped his finger again, opening the door, "Get in the TARDIS. Now."

Clara did as she was told and the Doctor soon followed her inside, leaving the door open behind him. He walked down the stairs and into the corridor which led into the endless complex of the machine, which only led Clara to wonder what he was doing. She sat down on the metal floor and brought her legs to her face, resting her head on her knees. Maybe if she stayed like this, nothing bad would happen to her on this planet.

The Doctor returned in a few minutes, armed with a book. This book, bound with black leather, simply had a one word title lain on the front: _Telos._ He immediately began rapidly flipping through the pages, and Clara could see that he was stressed out as well.

After what seemed like an eternity but probably only lasted ten seconds, The Doctor stopped on a page and read aloud, "The planet of Telos, first home of the Cybermen, was formed by the collision of two mega asteroids…" He went down further, "The properties of the planet were altered by the population of Cybermen, and soon the planet began fighting back in order to stay alive. If the Cybermen were to ever leave the planet, the energy of anything that came near it would be sucked out immediately for machines, and slowly for organics. However, this is very unlikely to happen, as the Cybermen only move planets every million years in an event commonly known as Cybermas."

Clara kept her head on her knees and asked, "Well, what does that mean for us?"

The Doctor sighed and closed the book, "If I had thought of Cybermas sooner and what year it was, I would not have even steered remotely close to this galaxy. Cybermas is when the energy of a certain planet runs so low that they move to a new planet and proceed to suck the energy out of that. They have timed it so that it occurs every million years of their existence, and it just happened here, which is why Telos is how it is," He took a breath, "What that means for us, as organic beings, is that the planet will take the energy out of us as well. It means no regeneration for me and certain death for both of us."

The man said this so matter-of-factly that Clara wanted to jump up and slap him across the face. However, she did not do that, and instead asked quite feebly, "How long do we have?"

The Doctor sighed once again, "Well, humans are much less complicated than Time Lords, so I would say you have a good 24 hours and I would live a couple more days longer than you."

And with that, Clara started to cry into her knees, and the Doctor started flipping through the book again, hoping to find a solution to their problem.


	4. Inside Clara's Head

There is something that is similar to relief when you know exactly when you are going to die. Of course, nobody cannot pinpoint exactly what nanosecond you will slip under, but knowing at least the power can both drive a person absolutely insane as well as provide them with a sense of peace. Though what the Doctor said was probably completely true in every sense of the word, it still took Clara an awfully long time to process, and process she did. The brunette remained on the ground, her knees brought up to her face, for as long as she felt safe. Her eyes that had once shown such promise and enthusiasm now empty, as she stared into the distance at something that wasn't really there. Her face which had once been full and beautiful now sullen, a side effect of the devastating news and the energy pull of the planet combined. The Doctor tried talking to her a few times, but her ears did not hear many of the words. Something about the TARDIS being safer than outside? No, she needed fresh air. Her lungs felt like they were failing and her heart felt like it was slowing, and she knew that it was not the planet that was causing her to feel that way.

Stumbling past the Doctor, she pushed open the doors and fell, face first, into the grass outside. The man ran after her and almost tried to pull her back, but stopped just before he would touch the grass. Clara finally felt the tug at her gut, far worse than that of the earlier feeling. Burning, agony, pain, Hell. That, and a plethora of other words that were travelling across the neurons, did not come close to the sensation inside of her body. It felt as if someone had taken a blowtorch and set it to the highest setting possible before shoving it through her skin and into her body. More incomprehensible words. A hand on her shoulder. Black.

"Miss Oswald, are you alright?" A young, blonde nurse was standing above her, looking at her with a mixture of confusion and concern. Clara could feel some sort of soft material under her back, and her eyes took almost no time at all adjusting to the light of the room. The nurse asked again, "Are you okay, Miss Oswald?" After Clara feebly nodded her head, the nurse smiled and said, "Well, get some rest. You were in quite the crash." _Crash? Why does that sound so familiar?_ Before Clara had too much time to contemplate it, the nurse was at the door and said, "My name is Tiffany Ardisson by the way. Holler if you need anything!" With that remark, the blonde girl was gone.

Clara finally understood what was underneath her body: a hospital bed. Looking around, she noticed that there were two IV tubes going into her right arm, one red and one green. She was also wearing a hospital gown, as she could tell be the amount of legroom that she possessed in this scenario. Smiling slightly, she recalled how the nurse said that she was in a crash. There were no broken bones, abrasions, cuts, bruises, or any physical evidence of an accident. Though the inside of her body burned slightly and her head hurt like a bitch. _Brain damage, maybe? Amnesia?_ That would explain why she could not remember anything about the accident. _Crash. It was a crash, not an accident._

After a few minutes of staring at the dull, gray ceiling, she started to drift off to sleep, closing her eyes. Her eyes remained close as she heard the door open and footsteps inside. She followed these footsteps to her IV bags, and then she heard the voice speak as a man, "Miss Oswald? It's time for tea."

For some reason, that phrase made her mind start going. _Where have I heard that before? That voice, that phrase…_

She opened her eyes and in front of her stood a man with the world's most interesting jaw shape. Following up from the jaw, she saw a slightly goofy smile, green eyes, and long, parted brown hair.

After watching her open her mouth slightly in disbelief, the man smiled even wider and said, "Don't act so surprised. It is like you have never seen a doctor before."

Disbelief and confusion once again kicking into her head, Clara asked, "You're the doctor…?"

The man, smiling, nodded.

"I'm the doctor."

Black.


End file.
